


Lucky Thirteen

by crocodilepatronus



Category: Downton Abbey
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-14
Updated: 2013-09-14
Packaged: 2017-12-26 12:40:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/966032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crocodilepatronus/pseuds/crocodilepatronus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A Friday the Thirteenth Thommy fic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lucky Thirteen

**Author's Note:**

> because having it be Friday the 13th on a year ending in 2013 is too good an opportunity to pass up! As I was writing I kept thinking are-are would’ve written this better HAHA. alas you’ll just have to put up with what I’ve written and it was done pretty quickly with a lot of distraction inbetween and I didn’t really have a plan as I was writing so I’m sorry it’s not my best work. Some parts are inspired by the fact that I recently watched the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead film and loved it

“No gambling for you today.” Thomas said, his eyes flicking up to Jimmy’s over the top of his newspaper briefly.

“Why not?” Jimmy asked, frowning. He wasn’t planning on gambling anyway- it wasn’t his half day. But it seemed an odd request.

“Friday the 13th.” Thomas answered, returning his gaze to the front page.

Jimmy laughed incredulously.

“What? You actually believe in that tosh? Wouldn’t have thought.” Jimmy said, shaking his head.

“Don’t know if I believe in it per say but why tempt fate?” Thomas drawled.

“For fun.” Jimmy answered quickly. “What about betting? Am I forbidden to do that as well?”

Thomas ignored him, turning the page of his paper which left Jimmy feeling miffed so he leaned forward on the table towards him, smiling like a cheshire cat.

“I have a bet for you. I bet Friday the 13th isn’t unlucky at all.”

Thomas’s only response was to roll his eyes.

“Or at the very least- I bet I’m luckier than you are.” Jimmy added, biting his lower lip as he watched a frown line crease Thomas’s forehead from behind his paper.

“I’m not going to bet you over anything today and especially not something so stupid.”

Jimmy sighed, standing up and stretching his arms over his head.

“I’m bored. There’s nowt to do. If Friday the 13th is so important then why isn’t anything funny happening? Shouldn’t Mrs.Patmore be accidentally putting sugar instead of salt on things and that kind of slapstick nonsense? Friday the 13ths just like every other dull day here.”

He straightened his bowtie, smiling smugly.

“Not that it would matter- I have excellent luck.”

“Bully for you.” Thomas said dryly, tapping his cigarette on the edge of his ashtray.

Jimmy slumped his shoulders, sitting back down at the table and looking at him with pleading eyes.

“Just bet with me- it’s no fun to do it with Alfred and I’ll die from the ennui at this point.”

“I’m not going to bet with you- you’ll just win.”

Jimmy frowned, the carefully constructed and artificial puppy dog eyed look dissapearing off his own face immediately.

“Why’s that then?”

Thomas put down his paper, taking a drag from his cigarette.

“I have terrible luck. Always have.”

Jimmy thought a lot of people in Downton had rather awful luck as a matter of fact. Edith, the plain middle sister, had been jilted at her wedding. The youngest sister- lady Sybil, who Jimmy had never known much about other than that she seemed to be one of the few people who Thomas Barrow seemed to actually like- had died after childbirth. And Mary Crawley, of course, had lost her husband so soon after giving birth to their child. That was a serious case of bad fortune. Almost as if the house was cursed.

He hoped it was the family’s misfortune didn’t extend to those downstairs as well.

“Well… maybe on the 13th it will be the one day your luck turns around.” Jimmy suggested, smiling earnestly.

Thomas looked up and a micro-expression of surprise and happiness flitted across his face that nearly struck Jimmy like a blow. He was so callous so often and yet at times his face betrayed so much vulnerability- so much raw hope- that it was heart wrenching.

“Alright then.” Thomas agreed, stubbing out his cigarette, a small smile on his mouth. “But not more than a few bob.”

Jimmy grinned at him and turned on his heel to walk out of the servant’s hall but as he did something strange happened. A nail in the floorboards was sticking out, which caught on his shoe, so when he tried to move forward, his shoe stayed stationary and the result was he spun once before flailing to the side and falling on his back dramatically.

Thomas shot out of his chair and was by his side in an instant asking if he was okay but it barely registered with Jimmy who was in utter shock.

Never could he remember a deeper humiliation. And in front of Thomas no less.

He shakily (not from any physical injury but from sheer, body-paralyzing embarassment) got up, brushing himself off.

“Are you alright?”

“Perfectly. Perfectly fine.” he said numbly, unable to process what had just happened.

Thomas’s concern slowly twisted into a neat smirk.

“What was that you were saying about having good luck…?”

Jimmy rolled his eyes but it didn’t stop there. Luncheon went fine while they were serving thankfully but when it was over and Jimmy went down to the kitchen Ivy ran into him holding a bowl of sauce which spilled down the front of his vest.

He went red in the face yelling at her until he realized she was close to tears and then stiffly said sorry and went to change.

 _Thomas is going to win the bet at this rate_ … he thought bitterly. But as he exited the kitchen he heard a crash and when he walked into the hallway he saw Thomas- at the bottom of the stairs on his arse looking thoroughly disheveled.

Thomas looked him in the eye seriously and said, “You didn’t see ** _anything_**.” before giving a quick glance around the otherwise empty hallway, brushing himself off and walking walking away, rubbing his lower back inconspicuously. His face was red as a tomato.

Jimmy was glad to not be alone in his unluckiness though it seemed no one else in the house was experiencing any difficulty.

In the break between lunch and dinner, Jimmy sat down to play solitaire in the servant’s hall. Thomas was off someplace else and lately he felt his absence acutely whenever he wasn’t around- Alfred was poor company in comparison and praddled on about nothing but Ivy and cooking.

Jimmy frowned, looking at the line of cards he’d set up.

_How do you lose at solitaire?_

He sighed angrily and reshuffled, laying the cards out again and starting fresh. Once again he lost. With a huff he began counting the cards out and found that there were only 51 in the deck.

“Well no bloody wonder…” he muttered, tucking them back in his pocket.

A low rumbling sounded outside followed by a heavy drizzling on the window of rain that came on suddenly and unexpectedly.

The back door opened and slammed shut as Thomas walked in, drenched. Jimmy made a short-lived attempt to keep a straight face.

“You look like a cat that’s been thrown in a bath.” he laughed at Thomas’s grim expression.

“There wasn’t a cloud in the sky when I went out for a smoke. The _minute_ I get my lighter out- torrential downpour.” he seethed, shrugging off his jacket and squeezing it so a puddle formed on the floor. As he walked by Jimmy shifted in his seat and frowned as he felt something hard move in his sleeve. He peered down the cuff in curiosity and pulled out the missing card he’d lost earlier- Jack of Hearts. He grinned, tucking it away with the rest of the deck.

He **_usually_** had very good luck- atleast with things like gambling. He thought it was partially intuition and a knack at manipulating stakes in his favor more than just some benefit of cosmic fate. Jimmy didn’t fancy himself a superstitious person. But he was beginning to wonder if there wasn’t something to this Friday the 13th nonsense. It certainly **_felt_** as if the universe was punishing him for his hubris.

Thomas for his part really had never been lucky. Not even just a _lack_ of **good** luck but a definitive prescence of **bad** luck seemed to be the recurring theme of his life. Things never seemed to go his way. Though he narrowly avoided disaster regularly, his plans never went without a hitch or two. Nothing ever came easy to Thomas Barrow. On the one hand he prided himself on his resilience- he relied on no one and nothing as fickle as good fortune to make his way in the world. On the other hand, he did feel some envy for people like Alfred who had no redeeming qualities or skills but seemed to get by effortlessly into others’ good graces.

Despite their combined bad luck of the day, though, dinner went smoothly with no accidents and when they walked back downstairs together neither of them tripped or ran into a kitchen maid.

Afterwards Jimmy stood in the servant’s hall alone, leaning his back against the wall and flipping a coin.

 _Heads_ , he thought to himself, flipping it adeptly and catching it on the back of his hand. It was tails up.

He placed the coin on his thumb a second time, flicking it into the air and catching it again.

 _This time it will be heads_ … he thought.

Tails again.

With nothing else to do he flipped it several more times, consistently concentrating on ‘heads’. Each time it came up tails. He examined the coin closesly. It had two sides- it wasn’t some trick coin.

“Alright, tails then…” he muttered, tossing it in the air. He caught it and looked…. heads.

“Tails. This time it will be tails.” he whispered.

Heads.

Jimmy took a deep breath through his nose. _This time it’s got to be tails!_

He threw the coin high in the air. As it reached the top of it’s parabola near the ceiling with light glinting off it, Thomas walked into the room.

The coin landed neatly on the back of Jimmy’s hand and he examined it.

A grin broke across his face.

Tails. Just as he’d predicted.

“What are you so happy about then?” Thomas asked, crossing the room and picking up a book he’d left ontop of the piano.

“Nothing.” Jimmy said, shrugging and trying to conceal his smile.

He tossed the coin again, wishing for heads this time and again he was right- it came down heads.

“Right. Well I’m going for a smoke. Hope it doesn’t start raining again…” Thomas muttered, walking out of the room.

Jimmy paid no attention, throwing the coin again and whispering “tails, tails, tails” under his breath.

His face fell.

Heads.

He tried again and ten flips later he hadn’t guessed right even once. He chewed his lip and pocketed the coin, stalking out to the courtyard where he found Thomas struggling to get his lighter to stay lit- the flame kept fluttering out in a nonexistent wind.

“Bloody thing…” he muttered under his breath, flicking it again and again impatiently.

When Jimmy approached, the flame obediently lit up, staying steady and high as he lit his smoke.

“So who’s won the bet, then?” Thomas asked, exhaling out of the corner of his mouth.

Jimmy shook his head.

“Forget that- I have to try something.”

He flipped the coin, concentrating on heads. It landed on his hand as heads. He repeated the process 5 times and each time it was heads.

“What are you doing?” Thomas asked skeptically watching him.

“Just… hold on a second.” Jimmy urged with some excitement. This time he flipped for tails and again ten tries and each time it landed as such.

He looked up at Thomas, smiling widely.

“Thomas- it’s **_you_**! You’re lucky!”

Thomas regarded him as if he was a mad person.

“You’re joking, right?”

“No, listen- I was in there before and kept flipping this stupid coin and kept getting it **_wrong_** every time without exception. But when **_you_** walked in- I got heads when I was thinking of heads! And just now- I got it **_right_** every time! It’s got to be you! You’re like a good luck charm!” Jimmy said eagerly.

Thomas tried to maintain a sardonic expression but a blush had crept onto his cheeks.

“That’s just a coincidence.” he said stiffly. “I’ve had worse luck than you all day- atleast **_you_** didn’t fall down the bleeding stairs.”

“I tripped over a nail- that’s almost as bad.” Jimmy mentioned helpfully, “But that’s besides the point. I’m saying this is like some sort of…. **_magic_** or something!”

Jimmy realized what he’d said out loud and winced.

“Well- not **_magic_** exactly but… something bizarre.” he thought, tapping his foot lightly on the ground and scratching his chin in an almost comical display. “I mean… If I think about it… Nothing bad’s happened while you were around. I mean- I tripped over the nail but it was as I was leaving the room you were in.”

Realization dawned on Jimmy’s face and he reached out, grabbing Thomas’s arm.

“Wait! Nothing bad’s happened to **_you_** today while **_I_** was there either! When you fell down the stairs I was in the kitchen. And when it started raining on you I was in the servant’s hall.” the words came out quickly and Jimmy practically bounced on the balls of his feet in excitement.

Thomas frowned, eyes shifting momentarily. He didn’t look convinced… but Jimmy could tell he was close.

“Alright- your lighter wasn’t working before, right? Didn’t it start working as soon as **_I_** walked up to you?”

Thomas shook his head almost imperceptibly. “No- it’s just- sometimes it takes a second to work…” he trailed off.

“Well see if it works now.” Jimmy urged. Thomas sighed, making a show of rolling his eyes to show how ridiculous he found this but took out his lighter and flicked it- the flame lit up easily in one try.

Jimmy jogged backwards until he was standing by the door.

“Alright- try it now!” he shouted. 

He watched across the courtyard as Thomas tried uselessly to get the flame to stay steady but it only came out in short, fickle, bursts.

Jimmy ran back to Thomas, nearly knocking into him.

“Okay- **_now_** see if it works.” he said breathlessly.

Thomas’s blue eyes were wide and looking at him. Jimmy took a step back, realizing they were mere inches apart. Thomas opened the silver zippo once more and a bright flame lit the space between them in the twilight darkness.

Illuminating Jimmy’s face- smiling in wonderment. He took the coin back out of his pocket.

“What do you think it will be?”

“Er- heads.” Thomas stammered.

“Right. Heads.” Jimmy said, tossing it in the air. By the light of the flame they examined it- heads indeed. 

Thomas looked down, the corners of his own mouth twitching up unconsciously.

“I’ve… I-I never would’ve dreamed **_I’d_** be a good luck charm.” Thomas laughed once.

“I’ll try again. This time tails.” Jimmy said, he threw the coin into the air but he didn’t watch it. He was looking at Thomas, face upturned, eyes following the spinning coin, lips slightly parted… Before the coin fell to the ground Jimmy had his face to Thomas’s and was opening his mouth over the other man’s, desperately pulling at his lips with his own. He wrapped his arms around Thomas’s waist, pulling their bodies together and running his hands down the man’s back, his fingers curling against the fabric of his jacket.

At first Thomas seemed paralyzed against him but after a few moments Jimmy felt hands running through his hair, down his neck and under his vest, trailing against the slope of his chest.

Finally Thomas made a noise against Jimmy’s mouth and pulled away, panting.

“I told you today might be your lucky day.” Jimmy said breathlessly, smiling at Thomas’s shocked expression.

The under butler swallowed, nodded and took a step back.

“Right… We can’t stay out here.”

Jimmy agreed and they went back inside, taking the steps up to the attics two at a time.

“Get changed into your night clothes first then we’ll meet.” Thomas whispered to Jimmy when they got to the top of the staircase.

“My room or yours?”

“Don’t know- should we flip a coin for it?” Thomas stifled a giggle.

“Heads mine and tails it’s yours.” Jimmy said, taking out his now ‘trusty’ coin again and throwing it in the air. Thomas caught it and slapped it on the back of his hand.

“I win. My room.” he said smugly.

“Oi- you didn’t let me see it!” Jimmy protested, grabbing the coin back from him.

“If it’s yours, Alfred will probably walk in at 2 in the morning wanting to talk about the naughty dream he had about Ivy.”

“Ah, true enough- your room it is.” Jimmy conceded.

He went back to his room, tossing off his jacket and pulling off his clothes in a frenzy. He scowled as he heard a slight rip and saw that in his rush he’d split a seam on his shirt.

“Bad luck.” he swore under his breath.

 _Better to get back to Thomas before I accidentally light the house aflame or some nonsense_ …. he thought, though he couldn’t help smiling at the notion.

When he let himself into Thomas’s room, Thomas was knelt on the floor cleaning up water next to his bedside.

“Knocked a glass over. Barely even touched it… It’s a miracle we survived this day, and no mistake.”

He stood up and smiled at Jimmy who practically leapt into his arms and began kissing him fervently once more, pushing him gently onto the bed with a creak.

“What first, Mr.Barrow?” Jimmy whispered against his neck, “Head or tail…?”

He climbed nimbly onto Thomas’s lap, trailing kisses against his jaw.

Jimmy’s licked a neat line along Thomas’s neck, feeling his adam’s apple bob underneath  his tongue as he swallowed.

“T-tails…?” Thomas stammered uncertainly.

Jimmy smirked, pulled down the waistband of his pants and retrieved the tin of petroleom jelly from the side table.

Thomas watched with an expression no less than reverent as Jimmy opened himself up with two slicked fingers, wincing slightly from the pain but then biting down on his lip as it dissolved into pleasure and he began rocking his hips against his hand.

“Ah- y-yeah… Alright… I think…. Mmm…” Jimmy breathed heavily, “I think I’m ready.”

Thomas swallowed, nodding and tossing his own pants aside and kissing the back of Jimmy’s neck as he gently pushed into him from behind. At first it was slow and he heard Jimmy’s small noises of discomfort but when their hips connected Jimmy suddenly released small yelp.

“Wh-what?” Thomas gasped, fearing he’d hurt him in some way.

“N-no! It’s… good! Right there… feels…” Jimmy gasped as Thomas pulled out slightly and insistently grabbed Thomas’s wrist. “Uhn… There. Keep going…”

It seemed that together they really did have improved luck that night. It often took several tries before Thomas found the exact place inside Jimmy that was most sensitive.

He kept one arm wrapped around his waist to keep him steady until Jimmy collapsed forward, grabbing the headboard of the bed.

“Yes! Oh f-fuck… That’s it…G-good…. _Damn_ …!” Jimmy expelled in a hiss, panting hard and rocking his hips back to meet Thomas’s carefully angled thrusts.

He bit down on his lip to keep from crying out when Thomas hit him deeper, faster, the friction sending wavs of electricity over his body and pleasure erupting from the spot inside him that was being mercilessly barraged.

Thomas came inside of him and pulled out before Jimmy had a chance to do the same.

“Heads?” Thomas asked breathlessly.

“Heads.” Jimmy agreed, nodding fervently.

Catching his breath, Thomas wiped his forehead with the back of his hand and turned Jimmy onto his back, and wrapped his mouth around the footman’s cock in a single practiced movement.

Jimmy already on the edge moaned loudly and jerked his hips upward, his hand gripping the back of Thomas’s head.

“God… yes… Thomas…” he managed through gritted teeth, his fingers twining in his hair and his mouth falling open as he came easily into his mouth.

The two collapsed in a sweaty tangle of limbs together on Thomas’s narrow bed.

Jimmy rested his head against Thomas’s chest, running his fingers idly through the coarse hair on his chest.

“Do you feel lucky, Mr.Barrow?” he asked.

Thomas stroked his knuckles against the side of Jimmy’s cheek and smiled.

“I feel like the luckiest man in the whole world.” 

 


End file.
